OUTSOURCING
What Tax
O
Outsourcing Looks Like Today
Tax outsourcing improves efficiency
ver the last decade, accounting firms ranging in size from small local firms to large interna- tional ones have embraced tax outsourcing as a way to improve efficiency, client service, and staff retention. This article will provide an
overview of those benefits as well as discuss the workflow, security, and regulatory issues surrounding the business process.
in at least three ways. First, it increases the annual billable hours per tax professional by enabling firms to staff for off-season rather than peak-season workload. Second, tax outsourcing moves firms toward a paperless tax workflow which streamlines and standardizes the preparation and review process. Third, when offshore tax outsourcing is used, firms can signifi- cantly reduce costs due to the wage differential between U.S. and offshore preparers. Tax outsourcing improves client
service in at least two ways. First, with most tax outsourcing vendors providing a one to three day turn-around time, firms can get tax returns back to their clients days if not weeks earlier. Second,
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by eliminating mundane data entry and file organization tasks outsourcing enables tax professionals to focus on higher level, value-added client services. Finally, firms say that tax outsourcing
improves their ability to atract and retain qualified staff by "taking the
TAX OUTSOURCING
ENABLES FIRMS TO GET THE WORK DONE WHILE PROVIDING STAFF SOME SEMBLANCE OF A NORMAL LIFE DURING TAX SEASON.